The Fool
by SaturnOolaa
Summary: A day in the life of everyone's favorite big sister. Rather funny, rather cute, a bit bittersweet... Written to show my appreciation for Nanami.


Disclaimer: Not mine, not miiiiiine!  
AN: A day in the life of Nanami. This was a bit hard to write, mainly because she was the only one allowed to do any talking. I managed. Hopefully it got the message across. I like Nanami- she's really sweet, even if this fic does make her sound a bit obsessed with Riou. That's the hero, by the way, just in case you didn't know that. -_-;; The title was taken from the fact that I stayed up too late one night and started assigning the various tarot cards to some of the characters. Enoy the fic and worship the godess of awful cooking. ^_^  
  
THE FOOL  
  
Nanami opened her eyes as sunlight filtered through the window. She yawned and jumped out of bed. "Oh! Must've gone to bed after training later than I thought, I'm still wearing my clothes... Better wake Riou up too!"  
  
Hopping up the stairs two at a time, she ran into her little brother's room and to his bed. "Good morning, sleepyhead! Oh, wait... it's empty." Nanami puzzled until she remembered. "Oh yeah! He's gone to find more Stars of Destiny and he said he wouldn't be back for a while... Musta thought he'd come back last night... stupid me! Okay!"  
  
Bounding down the stairs again and startling at least one guard, she made her chipper way to the great hall. "Today's a free day! Don't have to look after Riou... I can do whatever I want!"  
  
She tossed off a perfect cartwheel on the stone floor. "Better get rid of all this energy somehow. Shu got pretty mad last time I screamed hello to everybody. Maybe I should go swimming..."  
  
Nanami nodded, mind made up. She walked off towards the large pond near the training centre. She often went diving there at night- there was nothing as invigorating as really good cold water. Almost made her wish they'd had anywhere to go swimming in Kyaro, she and Riou and Jowy would have had such fun...  
  
"We could have all gone there on hot days." she decided. "Genkaku too! And Pilika. Of course, Pilika would have been a little bitty baby back then, but maybe she could have watched us or something." She bit her lip slightly. "Don't think about that! It's in the past. Jowy and Pilika... they're not here. What *is* here is that pond."  
  
Walking through the quarters made Nanami happy that she'd taken the time to memorize everyone's name. "Hello, Doctor Huan! Hi Tuta! Sir Camus, how's Sir Miklotov doing? Haven't seen him around... he went with Riou? Oh, okay. Hey Meg! Oi, Wakaba, maybe we should train together sometime-" she kept up the greetings until she reached the pool.  
  
"Okay." she muttered, taking a deep breath. "Hope this works..."  
  
"HEY! NANAMI IS GOING TO GO SWIMMING! EVERYONE CLEAR OUT OF THE AREA! NANAMI WILL SMACK ALL THE PERVERTS! SHEENA, SIGFRIED, THIS MEANS *YOU* TWO!"  
  
The human and the unicorn scuttled off with everyone else, and Nanami smiled satisfiedly. She stripped down and hopped into the water. "Nice... very cold, but nice! Now let's see how long I can touch the bottom for..."  
  
She dived to the bottom and surfaced again to notice that Sheena and Sigfried had, in fact, come back and were watching her body with some intrest. She jumped into her clothing in split seconds and started chasing them around with her tonfa. "YOU PERVS! I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE RIOU WOULD LET YOU JOIN THIS ARMY AND DESACRATE INNOCENT GIRLS! YOU ARE GONNA BE IN BIG TROUBLE WHEN HE GETS HOME!"  
  
Out of breath, she paused for a minute and let the voyeurs escape. "Great... now I need to do something else. Maybe I should go bug Shu... Nah, that would get boring after a while. I'll go to the hall and look at the stars of destiny! That way I'll know what stars Riou's recruiting right now!"  
  
Nanami skipped off, still saying her cheerful hellos to everyone in sight. She passed through the bar and grinned at everyone. "Hello!" she trilled. "You shouldn't be drinking this early in the morning! Go out and get some fresh air!"  
  
Reaching the hall, she smiled and waved at Viki. "Where did Riou go, anyway...? To Greenhill? Okay... maybe he'll bring me some food from the acadamy! He's probably forgotten how much I liked it, though. I'll remind him and maybe I'll go there sometime... Oh! Hi, Luc! I wanna see the stars of destiny right now."  
  
Ignoring the look he was giving her, she bent down and looked through the names on the tablet. "Let's see here... I'm Tenjyu star. Riou's Tenkai star. Nina's Tenfu star, Viktor's Tenko star, Flick's Tenan star, Apple's..."  
  
Pouring over the names on the block of stone, she fell asleep and started to snore loudly. "Genkaku..." she groaned in her sleep. "I don't wanna train right now... Riou and Jowy are out having fun..."  
  
She was shaken awake a few hours later by Luc, who cleared his throat pointedly. "Okay, okay!" she sniffed. "So I didn't get much sleep last night! If you don't want me ruining stuff or whaever, then don't let me sleep so long! What time is it, anyway? Three...? Oh! Better have lunch!"  
  
She grinned and ran of towards Hai Yo's resturaunt. "Girl's gotta eat, y'know! Keeps you healthy!"  
  
Bouncing through the door, she ran through into the kitchen. Hai Yo looked decidedly nervous about having Nanami so close to his work area. "Hi!" she chirped. "I'll take okonomiyaki, french fries, sukiyaki, sole, grilled tongue, ice cream and a cream pie! And I'll be waiting up on the roof, so please bring it up there..."  
  
The waitress blanched. Nanami looked at her in concern. "Are you okay? Are you feeling sick? Don't worry, I'll carry it up myself." She tapped her feet imatiently as the food cooked, then smiled as it was handed to her. Carrying a practical mountain of food, she stepped out of the restaraunt and began her long trek towards the rooftop.   
  
She smiled at all the people giving her strange looks. "No, I'm not giving a party, this is my lunch... Whaddaya mean it's too much!? I can eat all of this easily! I need it, with all the training I do! AND having to protect Riou all the time!"  
  
Alterately grumbling and giggling her way up the seemingly endless flights of stairs, Nanami finally made it to the top of the castle. She set down her plates and nodded contentedly. "That's good!" she said. "I'm at the top now... What a nice view! Oh, there's Apple... HI, APPLE!" She sat down and began to eat.  
  
"This sukiyaki doesn't have enough beef." she decided, munching. "Too much rice and not enough beef. I'd better go show him how to cook tomorrow..."  
  
Nanami surveyed the land. "There's South Window." she pointed at the city with her toe, her hands being occupied with the grilled tongue. "And there's Kuskus. There's Radat, and way over there is Tinto... Over those mountains. And beyond Radat is Banner Village... And then Gregminster... Wasn't that where Riou went? Yeah, think so..."  
  
After an hour or so, she had finished her meal. "That was great!" she said cheerfully. "Now I should train, I guess. It's a bit early to start, so I won't have to go to bed as late tonight!"  
  
Grabbing her tonfa from beside her, she took up an offensive stance. "You're goin' down!" she yelled at her imaginary opponent. Jumping around the roof, she struck at the air with determination.  
  
"Ohohohoho! You think you can pick on my little brother and get away with it? HAH! There's no way I'm gonna lose to you punk!"  
  
Nanami kept at it for several hours, defeating one imaginary foe after another until she got a bit too carried away. The wind rune on her hand glowed green, and when the whirlwind stopped she observed the fact that a chunk of the roof had been neatly taken out.  
  
"Heheheh... oops." whispered Nanami. "Guess I'll havta call someone up here to fix that... I don't know if anyone can really cover it up fast, though... That's not good- Oh, hey! The sun's setting! Already! Must have been out here for a while, huh?"  
  
She sat down, hands circling her knees, to watch the sunset. The first delicate shades of purple in the sky, and deeper down the brilliant reds around her, the gold as the sun sank beneath the horizon for another day...  
  
"Sunsets are great." whispered Nanami. "It's really pretty... I wonder if Riou is watching the sunset right now? Probably is... Yeah. The same sunset. Y'know, today's been a pretty busy day... It was fun, not having to look after anyone. I guess..."  
  
She smiled as the sun went down. "Y'know? This looks like the sunset that time that Pilika and Riou and me were waiting for Jowy to come back... I kept telling him to go inside and to bed, but he just stayed out there waiting... And Pilika too... But Jowy came back, didn't he? And we were all so happy... Maybe he'll come back today, too. Maybe he's just met Riou, wherever he is, and they're coming back to the castle. Pilika will get some new friends here, and Jowy will help us defeat the beast rune, and we'll all be friends again and everything will be better..."  
  
Nanami bit her lip. "Yeah... That's what'll happen... or maybe we'll all run away together and find somewhere and... What? Why am I crying? I'm not sad... I'm not... Really..."  
  
The sun sank and vanished from her sight.   
  
"Riou... Please come home. I'm worried about you..."  
  
END 


End file.
